TOPIC: Windows ignores it...Linux doesn't

Hey guys,
I am trying to dual boot my laptop, which I have done in the past. I formatted my hd to start fresh.

I have Windows XP Pro and I wanted to dual boot with either Suse or Mandrake. I install windows fine, but when I go to install linux on the partition I made for it, it gives me a disk error.

In my opinion, I have a bad sector towards the end of my disk where I am trying to install linux. When I was running windows xp pro and filled up the disk, I believe windows xp just ignores the bad sector and works around it. Opposing to linux, it will not ignore it since linux is trying to install the OS on that bad sector.
I was thinking of getting some kind of hard drive analyzer to find out for sure if I have a bad sector.
You guys recommend any I should use?
I hope I don't have a bad sector, since this is a laptop hd and it will be a pain to send it out and get it replaced. (I believe its still under warranty, but with my luck it won't be)

Quoting the exact error message from the installation wizzard would help (you can possibly get more comprehensive information if you switch to the first screen -ctrl+alt+F1- where normally the xserver and the installation program will send their output). Personally I don't think you have a surface damage on your disk as I am pretty sure if you did windows wouldn't let it pass (you said you have filled the disk under windows, right?). Unless it was marked at the filesystem as bad sector from a scan program, the OS would try to write data there and fail noticeably. If it is indeed a bad sector any program including windows scandisk will find it.

Still, it's difficult to make any guess without the exact error message

hey nske, I apologize I should of posted the EXACT error message. I am at work at the moment so I wasn't able to get the exact error message. When I go home tonight I will boot it up again and give it a try.

I forgot to add, I tried both Mandrake and Suse and recieved the same error.